


Storm Clouds

by OrangePress



Series: And the Rain comes down [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Emotionally Repressed, Eventual Cannon Divergence, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Not Beta Read, POV Second Person, Sunagakure | Hidden Sand Village, Unrequited Crush, Uzushio is rebuilt, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, life sucks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2020-06-28 04:52:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19805146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangePress/pseuds/OrangePress
Summary: Go Ren was born a little bit after Namikaze Minato. When his adopted parents discover he has a Kenkai Genkai, he's sold too the nearby Ninja village, Konoha. Luckily Root hasn't been made yet but that doesn't mean he's out of the ballpark yet. His parents lied saying he was five instead of three thinking to make more from a five year old then a three year old. Ren, meaning love, survives and graduates the academy with the most detentions. Ever. Now Ren emotionally constipated will serve as a ninja of the leaf with his most trusted friend, Kei, the wild rabbit.Kei, started following him at his Genin exam and then in a twist of events Go Ren followed Kei. Eventually, after Kei followed Ren through a desert, Ren named Kei, Kie, meaning lucky. With tests coming and going who knows what strange fits of fate will hit our emotionally constipated and probably touch starved protagonist?





	1. Warm Air

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this is OrangePress and no this hasn't been Beta'd. I am currently looking for one but have no clue how. If anyone has any suggestions, please comment.  
> I hope you enjoy this fiction as much as I enjoyed writing it.

His childhood up until about three was normal for the most part. Two adopted parents who loved him and cared for him. They lived in a small town near the larger city of Konoha and his father fished while his mother stayed at home. Both were civilians.  
He had a younger sister who was two and not adopted. All of the family, him, his parents and their grandmother doted on her. She was adorable simply put.  
Life was wonderful for him, until he showed his mother how his spit could stick a broken bowl together as if it had never been broken. After ten minutes of testing that yes, his spit did act like a sealant, his mother went to go fetch his father. He being three had entirely forgotten the strange look his father had gotten when he showed him by fixing another plate.  
A month passed and then a man came into the house. He ran too fetch his mother but the strange man grabbed him and ignoring his struggling carried him out the front then around to where his mother and father were eating lunch. His father stood up and walked over to the man.  
“Ah, Shinobi-san.” His father stood there and the Shinobi handed him an envelope. His father opened it to more money then he had ever seen in his life.  
The Shinobi jumped into a tree and started running. He struggled at first but the Shinobi whacked him hard enough to see spots and he stopped. The Shinobi landed and walked to the front gates. He heard brief talk and a number being given before the Shinobi walked inside and then too an apartment complex.  
When the Shinobi dropped him, he fell onto the ground. The Shinobi waited for him to stand up which he slowly did. He was handed a box.  
“Do you know how to read?” The Shinobi stared down at him with a bored expression on his face.  
He shook his head no and the Shinobi sighed. “Inside is your money for the month, your key, and your instructions. Do you know what’s going on?”  
He started tearing up while he shook his head no. The Shinobi ran his hand through his hair. “Right. Wonderful.”  
The Shinobi opened a door and pushed the kid in. “This is yours. Sleep in it. In the morning, head to the academy. There’s food in the fridge for the first two days. Cleaning lady will be by once every week.”  
The Shinobi looked at him. “Any questions?”  
He started actually crying. “Where’s Mama?”  
The Shinobi groaned. “Great.”  
The Shinobi pushed him, still crying into the apartment and then closed the door. He eventually stopped crying and instead left the box and instead wandered around outside. Eventually night came and he ran into the Shinobi again who scowled before grabbing him by the arm and marching him back to the apartment.  
He fell asleep in the corner crying and woke up to a shrill beeping sound which he cried over. He ran around the apartment and found it by a bed. He poked the alarm clock until it stopped and wandered around the apartment. Around noon when he felt like he was starving, he found the fridge the Shinobi had mentioned and gulped down food.  
About a week passed, until the cleaning Lady passed through his apartment. She scowled at him and marched him around the apartment picking everything and cleaning it up.  
Another week passed and he was out of food. A woman landed on his window sill in front of where he was playing with some trash. He stared at her and she scowled at him.  
He was dragged to the academy. His teacher gave him something called detention for skipping school. “Now, introduce yourself.”  
He stared at the teacher who sighed. “What’s your name?”  
“...Ren.”  
The girls giggled.  
At lunch, they gave him food and asked me questions. He answered and ate. After school the teacher made him hold a bucket over his head. Later he wandered around and fell asleep in an alley when he was tired. In the morning he wandered around more and eventually wandered past the academy. The teacher dragged me into class.  
A week passed and the cleaning lady came back. She looked in the fridge and snorted before grabbing him and pulling him to a merchant on the way to the academy. He bought food from the merchant and from then on ate bread and fruit boxes and carrots.  
Over that week the novelty of a new student wore off and then he was ignored for smelling, only wearing one thing of clothing, and being bad at school. He had detention everyday and never did his homework. The teacher scowled and yelled a lot because he only found the academy less then half the time.  
About a year passed and he had learned how to walk there and back. The merchant had sold a week’s worth of clothing during that time and the cleaning lady washed them. He started bathing once a week when the cleaning lady was there. His new teacher had him stay after every single day to get him caught up on his reading and writing and math and everything else.  
At that time, although he didn’t know it. His parents had told Konoha that he was five and just never grew that much. His classmates who were six were still how to read and write and most knew how to count to ten. He also learned but as a four year old still didn’t do his homework.  
The new teacher who like little kids had him do it everyday in detention and while he was still at the dead last he also was starting to get the hang of it for a four year old.  
Three more years passed and he was consistently after school for four to six hours everyday even when he didn’t have detention. He was no longer last but actually the top male. He still ate mainly carrots and bread and juice boxes and recently peanuts and raisins and had no friends but that was alright.  
The greatest change was he learned where the library was. The library was open from five hours before the academy to midnight. With four to six hours of extra physical work after school everyday and then reading before and after the academy he excelled. Not that anyone told him. He didn’t know anything other then his teachers would tell him to do better if he got less than a hundred.  
Over a week he slept, sixty three hours out of a hundred and sixty eight. He spent about five hours a week on cleaning and buying and getting dressed. He spent seventy hours on mandatory academy time and spent thirty five hours a week on extra. The last five hours were spent at the library for a book to read during lunch.  
His teacher from when he was seven asked him if he wanted to graduate early. He replied sure and took the test with a bunch of twelve year olds the next day. He wasn’t dead last but he passed with his vision going blurry from chakra exhaustion from performing ninjutsu like that and a concussion from fighting someone five years older than him.  
The next day he was given his teammates and his sensei. One was brash and loud and asked why he was paired with the shrimp. The other was also loud but more of the lively variety. He introduced himself.  
Our sensei walked in and told us to pack for three days before meeting him on training ground seven. He walked out while my other two teammates yelled at each other. “So, it’s nice to talk to you!”  
“Are you making fun of me? I’ll fight you!”  
“What? Of course, not!”  
He packed his clothing and carrots and bread and a few juice boxes along with bandages and kunai and everything else the academy had taught him. At the training ground seven he was the first one to arrive and so he started reading a book about field guides. A larger than normal rabbit walked into the clearing and stared at him. He stared back.  
They were maybe three feet apart. Slowly, he reached out to touch and it leaned back. He fed it carrots and watched it eat it. His teammates came out of the brush still arguing and the rabbit disappeared. He picked up the last half of the carrot and started eating while still reading.  
Mainly his teammates argued with each other while he finishes his book. His new sensei comes in with a pack on his back and smiling. “Alright then. We’re going on a hike.”  
They walk out of Konoha and then walk up hills and down hills. Climbing up cliffs and sliding down and turns and thick underbrush and three rivers are crossed. Sometimes he’ll look behind and see the rabbit following him. It’s after climbing vertically up a sheer cliff to a hill and Sensei let’s the other two collapse panting. He stands there not tired and waits. Out the corner of his eye he sees the rabbit sit down most likely having gone around the cliff.  
Sensei cracks his neck to one side then the other before speaking. “I didn’t want to take a new genin team.”  
His two teammates look at him curious as he continues. “The Hokage asked me too so I did but I said I only wanted two genin.”  
They both look nervous now. Sensei smiles big and bright. “So I’ll take the first two back as genin. Bye.”  
Sensei collapses into a puddle. His two teammates are gaping at where Sensei was. He looks around (ignoring the sun that for the past five hours has been at eleven hundred) and his eyes land on the rabbit before getting a crazy idea. Either he’ll get lost or he’ll be the fastest back. He crouches down ignoring his two yelling teammates and asks the rabbit to lead him back to Konoha. The rabbit shuffles his nose at him and takes off running.  
He runs after and his teammates don’t notice when he’s gone. The rabbit veers left and right seemingly at random and about ten minutes in the rabbit runs through a tree; it’s brush against something and he closes his eyes as he swings his pack off and slides against rough rock and into some type of cave he can’t see but can feel.  
He walks back into the training field feeling exhausted and barefoot. He had misjudged how much room there was on the rocks he couldn’t see and had lost one then the other. He needed to work on that. His sensei stared at him from where he was sitting on a rock and talking to another jounin.  
The jounin talked to his sensei. “I thought you said none of them had broken the Genjutsu yet.”  
He stood there legs trembling from exhaustion and feet bleeding with scratches on where his clothing hadn’t covered him from the twelve thorn bushes. “Genin 0008763 reporting from completed training obstacle.”  
His Sensei blinked at him incredulously. “They haven’t. Kid, why didn’t you break the Genjutsu?”  
He recalled that being on the ten to twelve year olds curriculum. “I don’t know how.”  
The Jounin laughed. “Satoshi, I’ll leave you to this.”  
She jumped into a tree. His sensei waved a hand at her. “See you later, Yura.”  
His Sensei turned towards him. “Kid, what’s your name and where are the others?”  
“Ren. I don’t know.”  
His Sensei nodded and then hopped off the rock. “Are you hungry? I’m hungry.”  
He stared at him. “No.”  
His Sensei twitched. “Do you want food?”  
“...No.”  
“Right. Okay.”  
He started washing and bandaging his feet in the stream that ran through training ground seven. Afterwards, he politely thanked the rabbit for its help and gave it some bread. He then started reading.  
The livelier of his two teammates was talking loudly while carrying his other teammate. His Sensei stared at them before speaking. “So you two are last.”  
His teammates started at his Sensei before noticing him. The brash one started growing red in the cheeks. “What the actual f-”  
The lively one covered his mouth. “Go-kun made it before us? That’s amazing!”  
His sensei stared at them. “Who?”  
Both of them pointed at him. He flipped the page still reading. His Sensei sighed. “Which one of you is going back to the academy?”  
They pointed started arguing. “What?!”  
“But that’s not fair!”  
“What about-”  
“Come on-”  
“-it’s fuc-”  
“-Sensei-”  
He kept reading tuning out the argument. Eventually, he hears “Okay, shut up!” from his Sensei. He looks up to see his Sensei looking exasperated. “Who should go back to the academy? Make a clear cut decision.”  
His two teammates look at each other before pointing at him. His Sensei blinks. He stares at them. “What?”  
“Yeah, he’s what nine. Far too young.”  
“Us two haven’t even heard of him before this and where was he this entire time?”  
He stood up sliding his book away and feeling irritated. “I have been here for the past six hours waiting for you.”  
They both nodded. “Sure, you did kid.” “Right. And I’m secretly the Hokage.”  
He turned to his Sensei. “May I be dismissed yet?”  
His Sensei blinked. “Sure. Here, kai.”  
The world went back to the appropriate time instead of still noon. He walked home. His Sensei shouted all of sudden. “Um, be here by six. In the morning.”  
He went home pulled out some paper from the shelf and started scheduling. Generally, there were three to six hours a day with a sensei. If it continued to be at six and was six hours, then he would need to go to sleep at nine every day. Make it eight twenty for bathing and brushing teeth and getting dressed in the morning and walking to places and he had about half an hour in the morning and ten minutes at night for getting ready. That would be sixty three hours of sleep every night with forty two hours with his team. Whatever wasn’t used could be used for the library. That left sixty three hours of physical training. He would have to find people to help him but he could probably go to the academy for after school physical conditioning all six hours everyday and fill the other three with either a partner to spar against or a different teacher to help train.  
He glanced outside at the sun and seeing it was about seven thirty headed out to the academy to see if he could train there for an hour and a half. His previous teacher told him no but did give him a list of people he could ask to train him. By the time he was done getting his training schedule arranged, it was time to head home and sleep.  
The next day at six, his two teammates were there and arguing. His Sensei landed. “Alright then. We have a mission today.”  
They weeded a garden for someone and were paid some money. His Sensei asked if they wanted to train or run another mission. His two teammates thrilled with all of their new money ran missions for six hours. They painted and built and babysat.  
His Sensei dismissed them and he ran to a chunin who had agreed to teach him the jutsu he had missed out on.  
Weeks passed and he started budgeting to pay for his food and equipment and library card and apartment. He wasn’t getting money every month anymore. Luckily he still had several boxes of money since for the most part he mainly bought bread and carrots but he had to run at least thirty D ranks a month to pay for his apartment and five for his food. Him and his teammates still rarely talked.  
Three months passed and his Sensei accepted a C rank to deliver supplies to the border. The rabbit that he’s been feeding every day at training follows him. That night on the road they sleep in the dark on the ground. They come back a week later and he endeavours to walk up a tree and a week later to walk on water.  
Time passes and he turns eight and they’re in the chunin exams in Suna. The first exam is simple. All of the teams are in a room, with the team members each given either a piece of paper or a basket. He has a piece of paper with the word burrowing owl on it and sets to work while his teammates go to look for the paper of a snake and some type of bug.  
He hides the piece of paper and while everyone is still talking or reading calmly walks up to one of the other team members of the Konoha team and pulls him into a hostage situation with a kunai. He is given the live owl and slips off into a crowd of Suna ninja’s who are trading animals and papers.  
The protector lets him out and he goes back to reading for the next two hours while wandering around before heading to their room and back to training. His teammates come back that night while he’s doing sit ups carrying paper fans and laughing. They stare at him. Lively asks him, “Hey, have you been here this entire time?”  
“No.”  
Brash twitches. “Why do you think your so much bett-”  
His Sensei walks in. “How did it go?”  
Brash starts taking deep breaths in and out. Lively looks sad. “I didn’t pass.”  
Brash scowls. “Neither did I.”  
Sensei runs his hand through his hair. “Hey, it’s okay. You guys can always try next time.”  
It’s quiet for a while other than him doing sit ups. His Sensei talks again. “Do you want to tell me about it?”  
Lively starts tells his mission report first. “Well, after Go disappeared off the face of the earth, again, me and Akio started looking for a snake paper and a bug. We fought people and slid past and after a glorious fight Akio said let’s just steal someone else’s hard earned stuff and we fought these Mist nin and they beat us up and took our stuff and then last person turned in the last stuff and we were disqualified.”  
Brash told his next. “Gorou and I fought some people but this rat of Ninja stole it while we were fighting and so I said let’s do that and then we fought some more people and then there were no more animals left or paper left and we were disqualified.”  
Sensei nodded. “Do you guys want to head home now or tomorrow morning or stay for the rest of the exams?”  
Brash scowled at the ground and Lively laughed. “Let’s head home now.”  
Sensei clappes. “Alright, pack up.”  
He paused his sit ups, confused on what to do. “Do I pack up?”  
Brash bristled. “What on earth does that mean, you useless retar-”  
Lively slapped his hand over Brash’s mouth. “Why wouldn’t you Go-kun?”  
He pulled himself into a sitting position. “I was told to report to the front gates for the next part of the exams.”  
It was quiet for a moment before Brash screamed. “You passed!?!”  
He blinked at Brash who looked furious. “Yes.”  
His Sensei looked startled and that… made him feel not so good. “That’s wonderful Ren. I’ll be back soon.”  
Then Sensei grabbed Brash and Lively’s packs and left with them. He stared at the closed door before hugging his knees and taking a five minute break before opening the window and letting the rabbit come drink some water and feeding it. He was surprised it had followed him across the desert.  
The next day, at the gates, he was one of the four Konoha ninjas here. The other three were the Konoha team he took the owl from. There was a little less than half of the participants from yesterday and he was the smallest here. The protector whistled for attention. “Alright, you are all going to be given a map. When the map says no you are all going to know where to go. Get it no because you no?”  
Some people groaned and a few laughed, for the most part it was quiet. He waited for more instructions. “That’s it. Just go there. You can start whenever.”  
The protector started throwing maps into the air. He grabbed one and bolted running as fast as he could. There was about a minute delay before he heard the protector yelling out. “What are you waiting for? You have two weeks! Go!”  
Eventually, he stopped and found some shade and looked at the map. Absentmindedly, he poured some water into a small bowl for rabbit. The rabbit (Who he had named Kei for Lucky) started drinking three minutes later. He knew the map was nonsense but he couldn’t figure out how. His eyes narrowed and he folded his map into nine square section before folding and getting rid of all but the corner squares. It took half an hour of fiddling to figure out exactly how to fold it so the map made a No and was accurate. Then he drank some water and started running. His sandals kept sinking into the sand so he took them off and used the same method he used for tree walking to run on the hot sand.  
He ran through the hot sun and when it started to fall back down, he reached the top of a sand dune and using the same method of water walking. Slid on his feet down it saving several hours of running down it. Using the inertia he kept sliding and skipped a few more hours. He walked another hour and into the building they had set up. The Suna Jonin looked at him and let him in. He had been first having ran through the heat all the way here.  
He waited in his room to let Kei in and watered him and rubbed burn salve on a paper for Kei to step in. Two weeks of training in his room and eating and water passed slower then he expected after he finished his books on the tenth day. After that he had three hours of free time, that used to be filled with books but now didn't. He had dropped a bowl and was scowling while picking up the shards before pausing. He vaguely recalled how to fix this. He slowly took two pieces that fit together almost seamlessly before he licked one side and put it together. It worked and he pieced together the bowl slowly.  
He tried figuring out how to use this before he made a water seal and while channeling it started drooling. He made a control seal and spent the next hour learning how to move it around. It took a lot of water though so he couldn’t do a lot.  
On the thirteenth day, the other Konoha team came in. They sat near him and he stared at them. The one with the blond hair spoke. “So, how long did it take you to get here?”  
He wasn’t certain what to do. “Thirteen hours.”  
Blond nodded. “Impressive. I’m Namizake Minato. And you?”  
“Ren.”  
The girl snorted. “Your named after a flower?”  
He blinked at her. “...Love.”  
She frowned. “What?”  
“I’m named love.”  
Blond smiled. “So where’s your team?”  
He turned his stare towards him. “...They didn’t pass.”  
The girl gasped. “Are they dead?”  
“...No. They didn’t pass the first round.”  
Blond smiled. “That’s too bad.”  
He nodded in agreement. More ninja from Konoha would be better for the village's chances. “...Are you not mad at me?”  
Blond smiled. “No one was actually hurt and Ko here managed to pass anyways.”  
He nodded slowly, glancing at the other boy who was apparently Ko. “...Okay.”  
The girl looked mildly frustrated. “Don’t you want to know my name.”  
He looked at her confused. Her name was introduced yesterday as having passed. “...It’s Gina.”  
Ko snickered. “You’re funny. I’m Ko.”  
“I know.”  
They kept talking to him and he wasn’t certain why and it kind of scared him and Minato kept placing his hands on him but eventaully a day passed and it was time for the last part of the exam. A tournament. He was facing up against someone from cloud who was sixteen and tall with muscles. He was also the first person going. Blond was facing a Suna ninja while Ko and the girl were fighting each other.  
He headed in and the Cloud looked him up and down before charging forward. He pulled out a kunai and got ready. The Cloud jumped up and chopped downward with lightning coating the Cloud’s hand. Ren jumped back before slicing his belly open. The Cloud collapsed and Ren jumped back putting distance between them.  
There was quiet for a moment before people started cheering. Medics pulled the Cloud out and Ren headed back up. Blond patted him on the back with a giant smile. “Great job, Ren-kun.”  
He blinked at Blond. “Thank you, Minato.”  
No one had ever told him not to call people by their first name and no one had ever taught him suffixes other then Sensei so he simply did. He also ignored the choking sound the girl made. Minato smiled while touching his shoulder.  
The next day, he broke someone’s arm before flipping them. The day after that he was facing the girl. She stayed back wary and he rushed forward. She sliced at him with a kunai and he slid his arm up hers before hooking elbows and tripping her. He fell with her burying her kunai in her. He pushed chakra into his hands and used it to vault over and away from her.  
After the battle, Minato looked furious and didn’t talk to him. Ren felt that weird sad feeling like when his Sensei walked out. The next day he was facing against Minato who still looked mad at him. Minato punched and kicked hard and fast. Ren dropped and rolled and jumped and threw and then Minato started using ninjutsu. There were multiple Minato’s and Ren kicked through them and Minato tripped Ren. Ren landed a kick and then put enough chakra into it to slide back. Minato yelped clutching his arm and Ren could see flutters of cloth and some blood starts to bleed between Minato’s fingers.  
Ren dashes forward and Minato spits oil into his face. Ren jerks back and Minato lets out a small gush of flame. Ren shoves chakra out of his feet and jumps back. Minato lunges forward flames sparking out of his hands and Ren keeps flipping and dodging. Minato lunges forward with his fire hands and Ren slides under and past slapping his only explosive seal onto Minato.  
Minato throws it leaping back and gets thrown onto the ground. Ren lunges throws shuriken before lunging with a kunai and Minato doesn’t roll to the side but instead uses his feet to kick Ren and breathes fire at him.  
Ren rolls in the sand to put his face out and then Minato has a kunai to his throat and Ren surrenders.


	2. Cold AIr

After his defeat, Ren got looked over by the medics before heading back and packing up. He reported his defeat and that he was leaving and then left. About two miles away from Suna, Ren pushed enough chakra into his feet to slide and then did so. Kei ran after him and they were back after two days. Once in Konoha, Ren reported his results and the chunin at the records department handed him his chunin vest. Ren headed home and budgeted and planned his training schedule and mission requirements.

It would take three C ranks to pay for his apartment and one to pay for his food. Tools and other unexpected costs would probably cost another C rank mission. If he took the gate shift, Ren could do thirty hours of work in a twenty eight day rotation. With six hundred and seventy two hours in those twenty eight days and thirty being used for work that left him, six hundred and forty two. Calculating how much sleep he would need would leave him with 390 hours for training. Ren would set aside three hours for books and other unexpected occurrences. In the end, he only had three hundred and four hours to train in a twenty eight day rotation period.

After the planning was finished Ren ate some food, drank a juice box and then went to register for the Jounin exam. The man at the desk, who was also a chunin, but older than him smirked. "Getting cocky, kid, don't you think?"

He stared at the chunin as his paperwork was filed. "...No."

The chunin chuckled and Ren walked off to go train. The Jounin exam would fall in exactly three rotations of twenty eight days. He had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time. Kei was behind him on the opposite side of the street. He slowed for the rabbit to cross before heading towards a training ground to practice. Two weeks passed.

Ren remembered his sand sliding and how he could increase the amount to push off. Could he use it to stand on something? Ren placed his hand on the grass slowly and pushed it slowly. It took two hours before he could walk on the grass not leaving a trail. He tried it on branches and flowers and then on water balloons (courtesy of his next door neighbor who threw away over five hundred). That took the rest of his experimentation time for the next week before he was able to do it. The next part would be training to walk on any surface instinctively. Ren asked Kei for advice while walking home.

The rabbit seemed particularly keen on examining a bucket at the moment. Ren considered how it would work before agreeing that probably would work. He found six buckets filled them with water, sand, a layer of rice paper over the top, grass, cloth, and the last one was just put upside down. After that he blindfolded himself and went through training jumping between the six buckets. He fell more than he expected.

Another twenty eight day rotation passed, Ren recalled how Minato had thrown a long ranged ninjutsu at him. If he was going to take the Jounin exams then he would need more ninjutsu then what he had. He checked the library and they didn't have any books on it. (Unbeknownst to Ren, he has been going to one of the civilian public libraries this entire time and hasn't even stepped foot in the shinobi one.) The only solution would be to find someone to teach him. How though? Ren found someone by asking the first Jounin he found.

"Please train me how to use ninjutsu."

The Jounin had a mild deer in headlights. "Uh, me kid?"

Ren blinked at him confused on who else it could be. "...Yes."

The Jounin shrugged. "Yeah, okay. I'll teach you a ninjutsu."

Ren sat down across from him at the table. "Thank you, Sensei."

The Jounin coughed. "Right, so do you like fire?"

Ren blinked at him confused. The Jounin grinned.

After the fourteenth attempt at the fire jutsu, the Jounin gave him some advice. "I don't know why it's not working. Have you tried making your chakra more firey?"

Ren stared at the Jounin before trying to figure out how to make it more firey. Kei's chakra wasn't a lot like fire so maybe the opposite. He twisted his chakra around before pushing it into the fire jutsu again. A giant cloud of smoke filled the area. The jounin and Ren started coughing. "That's a lot of wind. Make it fire like this time."

Ren didn't know what fire felt like as chakra. Except he did. Minato had used it, hadn't he? Minato had shot out fire from his hands and mouth. So if he just took his chakra and made it like that then it should work. There was an actual fire ball this time. The Jounin laughed. "Okay. So. Do that again but this time pull air in and blow the fire ball out."

Ren did so and the fireball left in a small stream of fire. The Jounin nodded. "Yes. But a fireball this time."

Ren breathed in while twisting his chakra and then breathed it out in one short burst. The actual fireball slammed into a nearby tree after veering three feet to the left and going two feet forward. The Jounin nodded. "Now make it straight."

Ren fired it again and waited for the Jounin to report how he did while his vision went black. The Jounin did so. "Right. Much better. I want you to make the fire hotter and focus on your breathing more. With fire ninjutsu it's all about the lungs and breathing and stuff."

Ren fired again and felt his legs begin to tremble. He could probably do this jutsu two more times before he would have to stop. He did it again. The Jounin critiqued. "Okay. Breathe out for a longer time. I think you've gotten the hang of this."

Ren could feel his bone ache all the way through and his watched his vision disappear. He performed the jutsu and the jounin critiqued. "Take a bigger breath this time. Okay?"

Ren nodded and with his hands that felt asleep performed it. The jounin offered advice. "Wonderful. Try making it go farther. Okay?"

Ren shook his head no. "I'm out of chakra, Sensei."

The jounin groaned. "But you were just getting the hang of it too, kid. You certain you can't keep going."

Ren checked himself. "...No."

The jounin sighed. "Well, alright. That was fun while it lasted. I see why Yura insisted on becoming a Sensei. Well, see you kid."

Ren waited for the jounin to leave before asking Kei to lead him home. Ren knew the way back by heart and walked it still blind. At his home he went to sleep and woke up in the morning to his beeping alarm and exhausted. Over the next twenty eight day rotation Ren practiced the fire jutsu every day until he couldn't and then bounced around on his buckets. He was getting better slowly. There was also physical conditioning and weapons as normal. The jounin exam started with him sparring against someone. He might have done alright for a chunin but probably not a Jounin. He was only able to use taijutsu but his opponents used anything else. Things got weird in the genjutsu section.

He was sitting in the same room but he couldn't feel Kei waiting in a bush for him but also he could. It was as if Kei was under a layer and the Jounin was still talking. He looked around and there was nothing different. He dispelled it. The Jounin was standing and talking to someone before pausing and looking at him. "You cheeky brat."

The Jounin laughed and then he was back under. Kei felt muffled and he dispelled. This kept happening again and again.

Then came the ninjutsu section. He stretched out and then threw a fireball before showing his rope jutsu and then his-

Ren threw himself backwards as his invisible opponent sliced at him. Then he stabs him with a kunia and buries into his opponent’s eye. He could tell he had missed when he felt bone under his kunai and so Ren fell back and threw a fireball before the prospector held up his hand to stop. Ren slid to a stop from where he had shuriken around his fingers primed to throw.

The man Ren had stabbed is clutching at his head and on fire and is rushed out. The prospector sighs. “Right, so far you’ve shown you can detect and deal with invisible people and one fire nature chakra. Show another one.”

Ren pauses and thinks back to the chunin exam and the training his sensei gave Lively and Brash. After making his chakra feel like the opposite of Kei, he pulled up and used the one Brash had tried to learn for all of five minutes before quitting. He hoped he could pull it off. The prospector blinks as Ren goes through the hand seals. “What are you performing?”

Snake-Dog. “Wind. Piercing breath.”

Ren breathed out, he felt his tongue get sliced a little and mentally kicked himself, and watched the breath stab a hole into the wall. He stopped and breathed hard before looking up at the prospector who wrote something down. “Can you perform tree and water walking?”

Ren nods. The prospector scribbles it down. “Can you demonstrate two change in chakra natures?”

Ren pauses before shaking his head. “I don’t know how.”

The prospector nods and hands him two pieces of paper. “Light one of those on fire and cut the other one with your chakra.”

Ren nods back and it’s quite easy to overload the first one before ripping through the second. Merely an application of channeling chakra versus pushing. The prospector whistles and is writing while Ren considers what purpose this exercise has before realizing that if he could do that with firey chakra or his not Kei chakra then it would slice and burn because that’s what they did. Then it clicked. Change in chakra nature. Ren wondered what his nature was.

He threw a kunai at the unseen observer after double checking with the prospector.

After that, Ren was interrogated and went through two days of sleep deprivation. Ren disliked that but mentally reciting all of the books back to himself was harder as time went on but alright. Yamanaka prospector, who (Ren didn’t notice) wrote down a recommendation to get Ren some more mental practice before he went on any teams (Ren was good at dissociating which was an alright defense but meant he went on the secret Yamanaka list to watch closely. Too bad for Ren that this Yamanaka would be sent on a mission, starting the second shinobi war, and died before he could be added.), merely recommended some books for self study.

After the two days without sleep, the display of chakra, the physical combat, the genjutsu, and constantly being attacked two Anbu dragged Ren, who used far too much chakra in his opinion, in a speed run to somewhere before dragging him over to the top of a building. “See that man. Assassinate him and return to the leaf without getting caught. We will be waiting for you where the moon falls from the top of the Hokage tower.”

Ren nodded and the two Anbu disappeared. He felt out and double checked that Kei was there, a lovely earthey presence, before giggling and stalking the man. It took him only a little time to take a needle and poke the poison sacs of the pufferfish before pretending to not be there when the chef prepared the puffer fish and served it to the man.

After confirming the death via being on the roof and pretending to be Kei so the guards didn’t feel him, Ren took five minutes to do the math. He was fifty miles away from Konoha if he wanted to get there before the moon fell then he should make it back in a minimum of four hours. However, he was tired and couldn’t math so it was probably best to do it in half that time. Ren wandered over to Kei, who looked and felt exhausted. “Hey, I’m going to carry you. Is that alright?”

Kei jerked upright from where they were sleeping and Ren grimaced. “Sorry. I’m going to carry you. That okay?”

Kei clambors onto his shoulder and keeps a hold via chakra. Ren nodded. Kei had attended all of his training sessions. It made sense that they would have some of the skills.

His legs hurt and Ren stealthed via making himself feel like Kei before pulling on stealthy clothing and climbing to the top of the hokage tower. He felt the anbu watching him and ignored it do the math before sighing and sliding back off and took a moment to lay there.

Kei had gotten off and remained wherever it was that Kei slept but Ren could barely feel their presence in the background of the village.

Ren stealthed through the village and made certain to not be seen by civilian and shinobi alike while not bothering with any of the anbu. Then he stood where he was told to go before feeling as one of the anbu’s watching him disappeared underground. Ren pushed himself into a nearby hollow tree and shoved himself through the ground before he fell onto a stone floor with a loud thump. His vision was black as he dragged himself up on the wall and then made his hands stick with chakra as a metal something was held to his throat.

There were words being said and Ren couldn’t understand a single thing. Ren’s vision returned and he was tired. Tired in a way no eight year old should be. He was exhausted. The anbu in front of him repeated himself. “Who are you?”

Ren blinked slowly. “Chunin 0002986 reporting as ordered.”

There’s a moment of silence and then Ren is following the anbu, with a cool mask and everything, to a room. Inside is the anbu who told Ren to report here. The anbu stares. “Report.”

Ren blinks once while swaying a little before going. He drops to one knee and stares there for a moment before ignoring his black vision and pulling out the papers by touch. The papers were the originals from the coroner and Ren feels someone take them before he stands back up. “Orders were completed. I was not spotted until return to the village”

There’s a moment of silence. “Go Ren. Report the events of the mission.”

Ren starts slowly. “I followed the man before realizing he had prior arrangements with a sushi restaurant so I poked the puffer fish with a needle where the poison sac was and then got confirmation of his death. After that I returned home in time to watch the moon before following it to where it appeared to fall. After that, I searched for secret exits and fell though. Then I was escorted by green anbu and thus concludes my report.”

The man in front of me sighs. “Do you want to Wolf or shall I?”

“My wife is visiting. Please take him Hawk.”

Ren stood there wavering. “Am I done with the test?”

There’s a hand on his shoulder and a wet human chakra is near him and Ren understands what people meant by fire or water natured. “You may rest.”

Ren nods slowly and then there’s a shunshin and Ren clambors onto the back provided and sleeps as Lizard carries him.

Ren wakes up in an unknown place and finds the bathroom before drinking water and heading back to the bed provided.

Ren wakes up again feeling hungry and in some pajamas, he’d read a few too many magazines on fashion, and makes his way to the kitchen. The house is quiet but warm. Ren feels the eyes through the walls as he rifles through the pantry and sees the hyuga clan symbols and some of their unique mason ware and knows that Lizard is a hyuga.

The little girl that peeps through the door while Ren cooks, he’d started it after the chunin exam as a way to make certain Kei would get the right ingredients before making certain to calculate the nutrition he needed and buy multivitamins. They came as gummies now and Ren liked them.

The girl continues spying on Ren as he finishes cooking, eating, and drinking water before hunting down his clothing. It takes only a little while to sigh before Ren starts doing the laundry. There is far far too much laundry to bother to try and sort through and doesn’t Lizard know that you have to wash blood immediately.

After that Ren has a minor fit before cleaning the bedrooms and dusting and folding clothes. The girl, who is about five, continues spying on him with her eyes on. Ren finally finishes the entire master bedroom and then stares at the girls bedroom. It stinks of rotting sugar.

“Girl, what’s your name?”

Said girl slinks forward like a disgruntled cat. “Daddy humors me.”

Ren stares. “I am Go Ren. What is your name?”

The girl blinks before bowing back. “I’m Sugar. That’s what Daddy calls me.”

Ren nods, even though he knows it’s a pet name, and glances around the room. “Grab a trash bag and come back here.”

Kei is in the distance and Ren is glad Kei found him because it’s relaxing to feel his presence. What’s less relaxin is the lack of cleaning supplies. Luckily it seems that they try to keep the kitchen clean and so there is dish soap, Ren immediately takes out all of the dishes and scours it from top to bottom with one magic eraser he had found in the attic with a kuina through it.

Meanwhile the girl is sitting at the table drawing on the wood. Ren finishes with the kitchen and stores away all of the good food before tracking down the girl who is throwing shuriken at a tree. She was not half bad.

“Sugar. Where is the compost pile?”

The Hyuga’s had huge gardens meaning compost piles. Two hours later after Ren finally finishes dumping as Sugar tries to have a staring contest with a fish and four different adults asked him what he was doing, Ren pointed at Sugar and they nodded and left, before finally they got back into the house and Ren did the mental math before going ahead and finishing the pantry.

Baking soda was then used on all of the carpets and Ren had Sugar help him beat every single carpet and drape before washing them and the like. The windows were scrubbed with a sake, water, and grape vinegar mix and then Ren proceeded to weed the garden and plant everything needed according to the books he’d read about shinobi gardens.

Kei was surprisingly good at it and knew what they were doing so Sugar followed Kei’s example and Ren planted the plants. The bathrooms were next and at midnight when Ren woke up and attacked the intruder, and got knocked into the wall for his troubles, Lizard came home and was very baffled.

Ren blinked blearily from where he was crouched before yawning as Sugar clambered onto Lizard. Lizard didn’t have a mask. Ren started and Sugar beamed. “Daddy me and Ren-san cleaned all day long.”

Lizard bounced her. “Did you now?”

Ren scowls. “You are very bad at taking care of houses.”

“Her mother took care of that before she died.”

Sugar presses kisses to Lizard’s cheeks. “Ren-san knew how to fix holes in the walls.”

Ren scowled. “And tables. And roofs.”

Lizard blinks slowly looking like a lizard. “Okay. Go-kun stay the night.”

Ren nods and climbs back into bed. Kei is underneath the house asleep and Ren joins them soon after.

Ren wakes up and tries to fight before getting pinned by Lizard. Lizard gets off and Ren feels Kei has only been asleep for a few hours. Lizard pats Ren on the head. “Your skills at being aware as you sleep is lacking. Pretend to be asleep next time and wake up sooner.”

Ren blinks at him before falling back asleep and then nearly attacks before freezing under Lizards stare. Lizard chuckles. “Better. Try not to move.”

Ren glares and then falls back to sleep. Lizard throws a kunai at him and Ren makes a halfway aborted attempt to do something. Lizard laughs. “This is great.”

Ren breathes in. Breathes out. Counts to ten. Goes back to sleep.

By the morning Ren is considering murdering his sensei but instead merely makes himself breakfast. It’s merely porridge and toast and jam but when Lizard comes out, and Ren considers stabbing him before dismissing it, and then just stares before beaming and pulling Ren into a hug. Ren decides it is time to leave.

Sugar noms on it all and then Lizard ruffles her hair. “Bye Sugar. Remember if you need anything go bother your brother and he’ll watch you.”

Sugar waves and Ren had just started cleaning up when Lizard picks him up by the back of his shirt and disappears in a body flicker while also sliding a mask on him. Ren almost finishes slipping out when Lizard chucks him at someone. Said someone jumps to the roof and Ren grabs onto the wall before taking a moment to get unangry and sliding down. He’s in a room full of people in varying levels of dress of different genders and Ren can feel the eyes coming through walls and were hidden and not. Lizard ruffles his hair and Ren stands still and takes it. “Blank mask, find a uniform your size and then your test will continue. Don’t take your mask off or you fail.”

Ren has a minor heart attack. Interrogation was hard enough for the jounin exam but the fact that it wasn’t over? Ren sighs and then gets dressed in, strangely enough, anbu gear including a mask. Ren starts to head to follow the other dressed people when someone moves in front of him. “Aren’t you a little young?”

Ren looks at him and realizes he probably doesn’t have time for this. “I’m in disguise.”

Ren manages to put the tone he’d heard Sugar use when Lizard had tried to add baking soda to the porridge because it was powdered sugar wasn’t it. Ren decided that he would be spending at least a week without interacting with Lizard if he had his way.

Ren followed everyone else in and there were Anbu on the upper balcony watching them. Over half of them were wearing the same mask. Another tenth were not anatomically breathing. Others were invisible, most likely, and still others were clones, genjutsu, or dummies who weren’t even breathing. Ren ignored them and looked around the room.

There stood three Anbu wearing Purple swirls, a cat? no dog mask, and Green Anbu. Ren glanced over the thirty with him and mentally shrugged. The three sign at each other before Lizard, who had his mask on and everything, lands in the middle of them. Ren twitches. And Lizard chuckles. It sounds strange coming from a blank voice and Ren wonders what the voice modulators are like in there.

“Welcome to the final exam. Pass or die. We need the bodies after all.”

There’s laughter and then the Anbu on the rooftops begin chucking shuriken and kunai. Ren glances around and see blank masks like his and people running around or shooting fireballs at Lizard or the three masks. Ren has no clue what to do but he needs to do something. Does he? Then it hits Ren and he dispels the genjutsu and finishes walking into the room. It’s the same but the anbu up above are all very much people and he can’t count them or anything.

Lizard is standing there and so is the Hokage. Ren bows and joins the ranks of bowing people.


	3. Movement

The Hokage raises an arm. “You have all chosen to partake in the elite exam. This is your last chance to turn back.”

Then killing intent washed over them and Ren immediately sought out for Kei and rested there on the calm as people fainted and a few people ran. It did not lighten up. Instead the Hokage sounded grave. “Very well. You have one goal. Come at me with the intent to kill.”

Ren throws two shuriken and then lunges forward with a kunia. A bo staff swipes at him and there’s a moment of silence before the other Blank Mask’s begin attacking in various levels of skill and threatening.

Ren pushes off the bo staff and falls back using someone’s senbon as a shield. The hokage swipes at someone else and then Ren feels the hokage start to go earth like. He grabs a nearby lightning. “Zap him.”

The lightening Blank is frozen up and Ren huffs and heads back into the main combat as the area he was in enters a mudslide. Ren breathes out wind into his fireball and only the bare bones of fire and fills that section with smoke. The Hokage had far too many jutsu for him to counter and he was still too small for being more than surprisingly lethal.

Ren grabs a water Blank from the smoke screen and leaves the rest as a giant air palm washes over them. The water Blank is coughing and Ren ignores it. “Climb into the balcony. When I whistle water dragon.”

The water Blank looks confused but then glances up at the balcony and Ren books it over to where there’s an earth that he needs. He grabs onto the earth as they’re pulled into the ground. The man is ready to attack and Ren ignores it. “Come back up. In two minutes disapear into the ground again. When you hear a bird call release a pushing jutsu towards the door.”

The man pauses. “Disguised dude right?”

Ren nods and the man pulls them back up and Ren needs a fire next so he surveys and picks up a discarded tanto and slides through the lightening that’s flying from two people who paired up. Let’s see here. There were thirty people in the room when it had started and so far twelve were unconscious and four had ran. That left the two he was with right now. The four who were about to get sneak attacked by a monkey from above and there was no point even trying, the man over there, the man in the balcony, there was the water user in the background and two people throwing projectiles and him. Where were the last two?

Ah, in the balcony. There was one and the last one was hiding under genjutsu. So while using the two lightning as a shield and getting his equipment planned. Ren came up with a plan. The genjutsu user was best left on his own while Ren took the two weapons and used them as distractions for the one minute and twelve second wait. There was no point trying anything with the other balcony person and so Ren tapped a lightening. “Save your chakra until I raise two fingers.”

Those two nodded and Ren fell in and kept the hokage’s back to the genjutsu person. The hokage of course then turned and whacked said genjutsu person and Ren took the moment to disappear and leave his two comrades to fall. Perfect. The Hokage was close enough to the lightening yet not too close. Two fingers raised and dual tri-lightning bolts collide down where the Hokage was.

Ren made a bird call as he slid past the two lightnings and used the tanto to slice the monkey. One threat down, one bigger one to go.

The Hokage was halfway jumping when Ren made contact with the water Blank and nodded. He couldn’t whistle because right now he was being a rabbit and the Hokage hadn’t noticed him. As the Hokage jumped up and away from the earth slide, Ren climbed up and up and then leapt as the Hokage twisted around the water dragon and started making hand seals.

Ren buried his borrowed tanto into the Hokage’s spine and then was running down as the water dragon collapsed and then Ren breathed in. Breathed out and headed over to check on his comrades. He walked over and poked the two lightnings, who were buried in the mud, before deciding their fine. Then he punched through the earth to where the unconscious earth Blank was and dragged him out. Then he glanced over everyone and decided it was fine.

Then he checked for a genjutsu before finally releasing his chakra to normal. He honestly hadn’t done that much other then think a lot. Battle tactics was definitely useful and he’d have to set aside time to study them. Ren wondered if there were jounin classes and why the Jounin test took so much effort but it made sense. Ren shuddered at what the Anbu must be like.

Ren looked up at the Anbu in the balcony and sighed. He threw a kunai at water Blank, who caught it easily, and then slowly nodded before climbing back down. At which point the other man did too. “Whistle grab the fainted and uninjured people to the left side of the door. Climber, grab everyone who’s bleeding and drag them to the right side of the door.”

Whistle stared for a moment before shrugging and nodding. “Want me to do that with the people who fainted from chakra exhaustion.”

Ren nodded and did a mental count once more. Twelve unconscious and four gone. Two lightnings were out, four were mauled by a monkey, Birdcall had fainted, Whistle was doing things, the water user was up, the two throwers were out, Climber was up, and Genjutsu was about to be up.

Ren proceeded to do it by waving over Water. “Fix him.”

Water proceed to spit water on Genjutsu who spluttered and was soon up. Ren nodded. “Genjutsu, can you heal?”

Genjutsu was tugging his mask off and Ren sighed as two senbon came from the balcony and Genjutsu was whisked off. Ren looked at Water. “Water, can you heal?”

Water blinked. “A little.”

Ren nodded. “Go heal the Mauled by Monkeys. They’re the only one with bleeding.”

Water walked off and Ren scooped up some water and proceeded to dump it on the twelve fainted and direct them in specific jobs to do. “Tall go fix the holes we’ve put in the ground and the ground itself.”   
Tall blinked once. “Are you talking to me shrimp?”

Water looked up and Ren blinked. “Yes.”

Tall pauses and then relaxes. “Oh, sorry. Forgot about the disguise.”

Water was staring at Ren with unbridled interest and Ren proceeded to ignore it in favor of going through his mental checklist. Everyone was up. Some had chakra exhaustion, a lot had bruises, and a few were mummies. The room was fixed and Ren didn’t know what else he was supposed to do.

So, he walked up to where the anbu were and asked. “Purple Swirl Mask, what am I supposed to be doing next?”

The room was being fixed and the anbu shrugged. Ren nodded. “Green Mask?”

Someone snorts. There’s a sigh and Green sighs. “What do you after a mission?”

Ren blinked before nodding.

Then he walks back down. “How many can walk?”

The fainted people quickly were given stretchers made of earth, and Ren memorized that technique immediately, before Ren marched them out the hallway and towards Konoha. The genjutsu, seals, and the forest itself were quite disorientating and this close to Konoha he couldn’t focus on Konoha as a whole so Kei it was.

Several of the fainted acted up and Ren stabbed senbon into their neck, he’d picked them up from the ground when he was cleaning any evidence of him being there, before they all shut up and followed him. Ren believed it was mainly because the chakra exhausted didn’t care and the stronger people, Water who had survived on his own, Whistle who was not just convenient, and Climber who some people seemed to be nervous of.

Then they made their way through it and Ren paused at the edge of Konoha. “Right from here one we’re going full stealth. Genjutsu, how many people can you cover?”

Genjutsu squared their shoulders. “I’ll cover six.”

Ren did the math. There were four people who needed the hospital and “Alright, Water you’re with them in case something goes wrong. Get the four mauled to the hospital. Whistle and Climber will take one chakra exhausted each. Dump them at the hospital come back. Projectiles. You’re going to bringing up the rear. Everyone else head to the tower and give our mission report. ”

Ren looked at every one and then nodded and scooped up Birdcall, who was lagging behind due to chakra exhaustion ad Climber and Whistle picked up the two Lightnings. Everyone else pulled on invisibility or henges or the like and Ren left them. He used far too much chakra Climber and Whistle shared looks before helping him. They made it to the hospital and then there was a moment of silence. “Do we just head in?”

Ren considered. If he was an anbu he’d make it easy to access and yet hard to do on accident. He compared the hospital to a few other pictures he’d seen in books and paused. The second to last window was always open. Even in winter time. “We’re going through that window.”

Climber dumped Birdcall, who groaned, and than shunshins into the building and then gets pinned by blur of black. Whistle sighs and then grabs the other two. “Hey, head to the office and report for us.”

Ren nods and makes his way to the office and heads on in while politely ignoring everyone who was politely ignoring the Blank Masks. Ren gathered them up and then instead of being given forms they went in to meet the hokage themself. The Hokage was not smoking a pipe but he did have one. Ren bowed and everyone copied him.

The Hokage flipped through some papers and then stood up. “You four. You’re dismissed. So are you six. You three are as well. As are you two and you.”

The Hokage dismissed the first sixteen within the first thirty seconds. “As for you eight. I will talk to the six at the hospital later. For now we will be doing one on ones. You will wait outside until I call for you. For now, you seven leave.”

The other seven left and Ren remained bowed there. The Hokage stood up and walked towards the window. “Go Ren. It says in your file that you have a kekkei genkai.”

Ren had no clue what was going on. “Yes, Hokage-sama.”

The Hokage stares at him before sighing. “In your opinion who should get the promotion.”

Ren thinks it through. “Water should and maybe Projectiles. The rest need more training.”

The Hokage slowly smiles. “Read through these files and tell me who you think should get a promotion.”

Ren took them and read through.

Sakumo Hatake

Proficient with sword. Signed up for. Water chakra type.

No family. No distinctive friends. Hatake Clan Heir.

Is loyal to team mates but very rarely gets things in return.

Missions completed: 2D, 3C, 47B, 23A, 2S, 438H

Hoshi Nara

Proficient in long ranged weapons. Signed up for. TBD.

Mother, Sister y, Sister o. No distinctive friends. Nara Clan Member.

Disinterested with most things. Possible Depression.

Missions completed: 14D, 13C, 23B, 17A, 1S, 2837H

Mei Haruno

Proficient in genjutsu, Proficient in poison. Signed up for. TBD.

No family. Sakura tea shop C, Katsu librarian/part time writer FAS. No Clan 

Scared of her poison skills. Possible Bipolarism.

Missions completed: 49D, 54C, 12B, 7A, 0S, 8914H

The papers go on and on and on. Ren decides to stick with the first three. Especially since Haruno’s have pink hair and so did Genjutsu. With proof that Genjutsu had skills other than the rest. The other Projectile didn’t stick out so Ren skipped them. “These three.”

The Hokage blinked slowly. Lizard lands behind Ren and Ren merely does a half aborted motion. The Hokage smiles. “Lizard, do you agree?”

Lizard takes them and flips through the three. “This is all you gave him to work on?”

The Hokage nods. Lizard whistles and then ruffles Ren’s hair. Ren stares at Lizard. The Hokage glances at Lizard and then sighs. “Are you certain?”

Lizard nods once more. “Yes.”

The Hokage sighed. “Very well, Ren-kun, why did you sign up for the anbu test?”

Ren stares. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m still taking the jounin test correct?”

Lizard pauses. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

The Hokage sighed and then lights his pipe before glancing at Ren. “You don’t mind do you?”

Ren shook his head no as he shuffled all the way back. Lizard lands with a screaming chunin and then there is the Hokage’s angry killing intent. Ren blinks. The Chunin takes two steps back. “Hok-”   
The Hokage placed Ren’s Jounin paperwork down. “Explain.”

The Chunin blanches. “It was, it was just supposed to scare him. You know. Rawr. He was one of those clan types who get all the help and-”

Ren is tilting his head to the side in confusion. The Hokage breathes into his pipe. Breathes out. “Anbu.”

The Chunin is dragged off and then Ren is still standing there. The Hokage sighs and seems to age from thirty to forty. Lizard is practically cackling. Ren thinks. The Anbu armor helps support a straight back, because it’s armor, so it takes effort to curl up some but not all the way. Ren blinks again. “Hokage. Am I dismissed?”

The Hokage sighs and sinks in his seat. “Yes, send in Hoshi Nara.”

Ren walks out. “You are all dismissed except for you.”

One of the projectiles had brown hair which was not a Nara trait. The other one had black. Ren hoped for the best. Then he paused at seeing Water and Genjutsu. “You two are not dismissed.”

Lizard walks out of the room. “Right, come on, Blank Mask. This is going to be great.”

Lizard picks Ren up by the back of his shirt and Ren goes limp. It doesn’t work. Ren sighs. “Where are we going?”

Lizard laughs. “We’re going to go get you a proper face.”

Ren considers what he’d learned about dialects and pidgins and psychology. “How does it-”

Ren feels the shunshin start and clings to Lizard. Lizard cackles and then chucks him at a crazed looking man with red hair. Ren gets caught and the man blinks at him. “Hm.”

Lizard freezes and Ren blinks slowly as the man lowers Ren so the mask is touching his nose. “Hm.”

Ren blinks again and Red snorts. “Rabbit.”

Red then chucks Ren to Lizard, who catches him, and Ren promptly decides to cling on and not let go. Lizard tugs at him a little bit before laughing. Red comes back out with a porcelain mask and then slices Ren’s hand and begins laughing as he does something with the mask. After that though, Ren has a white mask with red eyes and two red swirly lines that could look like floppy ears.

Ren sighed and put it on and felt it  _ connect _ to his chakra and Ren just freezes before tilting his head to the side. Lizard begins cooing and Red is laughing and there are pictures going off. Green walks in. “Hey, Lizard, who are we-”

Green stops and stares. Lizard bounces over. “Crocodile look at him. He’s so cute.”

Green slumps a little. “He’s so precious.”

Red is laughing harder and Ren stands there having no clue what’s going on. He blinks a few times and then shrugs. Lizard sighs. “Alright time to introduce you to the base.”

They head to a different Anbu base and there’s locker rooms and everything. There are six people here. Someone pauses. “Aren’t they a little young?”

Ren sighs. “My name is Rabbit. Please take care of me.”

Then he bows and stands stiff. Purple cackles. “I’m Hyena. I’ll tell you the three real Anbu rules. The fourth is unspoken.”

Everyone nods. Ren blinks. Hyena raises a finger. “One. Admit nothing to no one.”

A yellow mask raises two. “Two. Never betray, never surrender, never give up.”

Ren nods patiently. Tiger or Cat or something with whiskers raises three fingers. “Three. Believe in your comrades.”

They all high five. Ren pauses. “If those are the real rules what are the fake rules?”

Lizard chucks him into the air and Ren twists to stand on the roof. Lizard pouts. A mask with black on it snorts. “I’m Bat. Here’s how it goes not fake just not so literal. One. Accomplish all missions. Two. Never tell, never show, never fail. Three. Beware of everyone and everything. Four. Uniqueness is death.”

Ren tilted his head to the side. “Explain some more please.”

Crocodile sighs. “I’ll get some drinks.”

Lizard hums. “Oh, this is great.”

Ren blinks as those two wander off. Bat sighs. “That’s Hyena, Gecko, Tiger, and that over there with the blue scales is Fish.”

Ren supposed that if you used your imagination it could be scales. Fish waves before beginning to sign. Ren doesn’t know this sign. There’s a moment of silence before Gecko sighs. “We’ll add that to your list of things to learn Rabbit. For now, explanations and philosophy. The real Anbu rules are simple. They’re straight forward. They’re not hiding meanings or anything of the like.”

Tiger huffs and continues. “The other ones are real but they’re like the shinobi rules. Accomplish what you have set out to do. In almost all cases that is the mission. We are but tools for the village but we are also more. We are shinobi who are skilled enough to be trusted with the hidden frontlines and quiet enough to not be known.”

Fish signs something and everyone laughs. Ren tilts his head to the side some more. Bat whispers. “Or awkward enough.”

There’s more laughter. Hyena cackles and continues. “Sometimes the mission you get is not the mission you’re meant to accomplish. That is why we have to be more than just strong. Why even though you aren’t the strongest you were chosen because you are skilled.”

Ren bows his head before straightening up again. Bat continues this time. “Never tell. Never telling anyone about Anbu is nearly impossible but we try. Never tell is more for the reason that loose lips get people killed. For some people that means being celibrete until they’re out of the Anbu.”

Ren tilts his head to Fish who is signing and listens as Gecko translates. “Never show. Never show enemies weakness. Never show that Konoha could be less than it is. We are those in charge of Konoha’s image underneath it’s image. We show what we want and that is it.”

Tiger continues. “Never fail goes back to never show and ties into the fourth one. We are Konoha’s shadow. It’s root system to support the flowers and roots. If anyone saw how weak our roots were underneath the surface Konoha would be in trouble. Do not be visible. Be silent. Be quiet.”

Hyena continues just as dead serious. “The third one is difficult for some people. It means bewary but more importantly it’s also a reminder that if a root is without the leafs then the roots will die. Konoha is one village. We have been ever since the first and second hokage. No matter how much Madara tried to change that.”

Bat huffed. “Several Anbu are old timers and still upset about Madara.”

Ren nodded and walked down from the ceiling. Water walked in wearing a mask with red lines and red ears. Ren tilted his head. “I am Rabbit.”

Water shrugged and then sat down in a nearby chair that Bat was offering. “Welcome to Anbu, Wolf, I’m Bat. That’s Gecko, Fish, Crocodile, Tiger, Hyena, and our second newest member Rabbit. You’re the first.”

Crocodile waves. “We were just talking about the Anbu rules.”

Wolf shrugs. “Apparently I wouldn’t have made it but someone vouched for me and um, I don’t know her name?”

There’s a moment of silence. Crocodile coughs and Ren files that away as something someone can do. “Right anyways. So when is she coming in?”

At that moment Lizard pushed Genjutsu in. Genjutsu stopped and stared. Tiger whistled. “Wow, three members in one test. Nice.”

Lizard shrugged. “Alright then we have Rabbit, Wolf, and Crow here. You two get to talk philosophy and Rabbit is coming with me.”

Ren dodges Lizard’s grabbing attempts up until Lizard laughs and stops. Ren tilts his head to the side. “Where are we going?”

Lizard stretches out. “So, there are three Anbu teams and you’ve met one of them. I’m in charge of them all and one of them is on a mission. The other one only has one person here right now. They’re in our only changing room right now. Let’s see here. Anbu’s relatively new right now compared to the genin corps and well, even the academy I guess. Huh. Tob-The second hokage made us about a year before his death.”

Ren nods. “I see. There used to be one team and it has so far been expanded slowly. There is most likely about thirty or so Anbu members and you are the leader. Small team of strong people with the ability to be stealthy.”

Lizard nods. “Hey, Bear, how are you doing?”

Bear walked out and was huge. Lizard chucked Ren at him and Bear caught him before holding him up. “What is he? A squid?”

Ren was being touched and it was strange. “Rabbit.”

Bear nodded. “I am Bear. I work with my teammates and we form the unofficial team two. They’re Cat, Crow, Frog, Dragon, Eagle, Hare, and Cow. The third team consists of Tapir, Phoenix, Salamander, Trout, Panther, Tabby, and Dog. I am skilled in hand to hand, fire jutsu, and kenjutsu. Welcome to Anbu.”

Lizard continues. “Anbu was made to keep the peace and to mainly keep an eye on the Uchiha since the second was paranoid.”

Bear snorts. “Introduce yourself, Rabbit.”

Ren blinks. “I am Rabbit. I haven’t worked with anyone yet. I am skilled in the basic and chakra sensing. Thank you.”

Lizard laughs and then is touching Ren and ruffling his hair. “I figured we could use him to finish figuring out our training of new people. Also, he’s smart. Didn’t know that about the chakra sensing but he is good at hiding himself. He freaked Crocodile out once.”

Bear nodded. “A stealth type. I look forward to working with you.”

Lizard laughs some more before shifting to a serious pose. Ren and Bear shift to pay attention. “Bear take him on this mission. Rabbit. Obey Bear.”

Bear takes a scroll and Lizard leaves.


	4. Cold Front

Bear reads through the mission before nodding his head and handing it to Ren. Ren reads through it as well. It’s a simple mission. Head to the Land of Wave. Pick up a package. Drop it off in the Land of Wind to the client. Return home.

What isn’t simple is the fact that said package is a young girl and to make it look like samurai did. Ren assumes it’s because the Land of Wave prefers Samurai over Ninja. Bear hums. “We have a week to get there. Over that time we’ll set up our roles. I’ll be your teacher and you’ll be my young student. Is this acceptable?”

Ren considers what he knows of students. “Yes. I do not have the appropriate clothing. Where is the storage room?”

Bear stops and tilts his head at Ren. Ren stares back. Bear pauses. “That would be useful. When we get back you should tell Lizard. For now though, we’ll have to make do and yet leave no traces. Suggestions?”

Ren considers. “We’ll make a detour of seven miles. Seven samurai retired there and formed a town fifty two years ago. While not quite the same it will be closer and easier to modify than anything else.”

Bear nods. “Let’s go then.”

They run there and observe the town before sneaking in and amongst children to get Ren appropriately sized things before Bear put a fat woman under genjutsu to toss clothing off of a cliff. After that, Ren stitched up and sliced and patched and roughed up so that the clothing seemed to match months of travel.   
Bear, who knew how to sew, was given elaborate orders to redo the hems and collars to make it match the land of iron from five years ago. Ren in the meantime was going through the basic movement of the Land of Iron’s fighting style.

The rest of the trip went smoothly. Bear stared at Ren. “How old are you?”

Ren blinked. “I am turning nine in two weeks.”

Bear nodded. “I am turning forty two in four months and six days.”

Ren nods back. “What should I call you?”

Bear pauses. Ren tilts his head to the side to the side. “Aerith Takahashi. I shall be Katsu Takahashi. It’s tradition to name your child you hope they’ll personify. The name Takahashi comes from the bridge Hashirama that used to cross the mountain and was built by Hashirama Sengu. Nevermind to close to Konoha. Let’s see here the Land of Iron does have that one bridge. Right, the Rainbow Bridge. Supposedly it leads to the spirit realm near the moon.”

Bear nods. “I assume that I took you as my apprentice because we’re related. No, we don’t look close enough. I’m your uncle. Your late father passed away when you were six and your mother is in the Land of Iron being cared for by your sister Souta. She’s married but you don’t remember the name.”

Ren nods. “You never married and are seeking to perfect your sword skills. We’ve been travelling for a while.”

Bear nods. “Come along, Katsu. We want to get there by nightfall after all.”

Ren huffs like he’d seen other children do. “We’re going to need disguises sensei.”

Bear pauses. “You want to have dark skin, red hair, and bright blue eyes.”

Ren shrugs. “You want to though. Let’s add some red markings and give you a face scar. Some people find it attractive.”

Bear begins laughing before grinning. “This is going to be great. So what’s the secret background.”

Ren side eyes him. “There’s a clan in Suna that matches that appearance, utilizes swords, and has red clan markings. We will of course be hiding them except for triangles on our cheeks that match the Inuzaka’s as an attempt to blame Konoha. No that’s not good enough. Suna is currently disputing with winds clans.”

Bear pauses. “Circles. Wind’s major clan’s secret forces use them on their cheeks.”

Ren nods and makes a mental note of that. “Right. Wind forces disguised as Suna forces disguised as wind’s. Circles inside circles.”

Bear grins. “This is great. I get why you’re hired. Let’s go Katsu. We’ve got a week after all.”

Ren nods and they repack up and run the rest of the way before hiring a boat across. After that it takes only a little time to pretend to be the escort to the young girl’s escort. A young Uzumaki girl who’s pretending to not be that is. Bear tracked down the escort and then rushed Mikoto away before our deception could be discovered. Ren made certain to make sure that the escort was Konoha ninja, they were actually Brash and Lively working together, while Bear made certain to upset every single person there without getting noticed by Mikoto.

Ren sighs and then beams as the girl looks at him. “What’s wrong Katsu-kun?”

The girl is fourteen. Ren shrugs. “I don’t know. Just a little bored I guess.”

While the girl smiled indulgently, Ren tries to look envious as Bear beats up, but does not kill that would be for his shadow clone to backtrack and do, and ties up the bandits. Mikoto speaks up. “Ah, it’s alright if you want to go fight instead of protect me.”

Ren puffs up like a bird does. “That’s alright. I can protect you. Just watch me. I’ll beat up anyone who comes your way.”

Mikoto just smiles some more. “My how brave.”

Ren nods and Bear ruffles his hair. “Katsu, keep protecting her.”

Ren huffs and then nods. “Yes, sensei.”

Mikoto chuckles. “Well, thank you then. Do you know when we’ll be arriving in the Land of Iron?”

Bear shrugged. “We’re going to be breaking off the main road since you don’t want to get married or found by the people chasing you. It’ll take only a little bit.”

Turns out the reason that Konoha had accepted either mission was because Uzoshi had hired Mist ninja to track her and the Third was upset. Ren didn’t understand. Neither did Bear. Probably something neither would understand. Ever.

Mikoto nodded and then frowned. “Should I... change?”

Ren puffed up. “But you look so pretty?”

Bear shrugged. “Probably.”

Mikoto hesitated. “Into what?”

And that’s Mikoto where began to wear Bear’s hastily rehemmed clothing and Ren and Bear departed and slowly but surely pushed her rapidly towards Wind instead of Iron. Mikoto began teaching Ren chakra tricks and on the night before delivery there was a silent call for a talk between Ren and Bear. “This is stupid. Is there another countermission that Lizard didn’t tell us about?”

Bear shrugged. “Please explain why it’s stupid.”

Ren sighs. “The first team was too obvious. We’re upsetting Uzoshi. This one is blaming Suna and Wind in general. There’s no reason to do that. Usozhi doesn’t care about Wind and the only reason this is helping is because it makes them dislike Wind for bloodline theft. The final problem is that none of these are problems as long as we make it so it’s fixed. The only reason this is useful is in the case of Suna attacking us.”

Bear nods. “Do you see any way we can make it so Uzoshi still likes us and dislikes Suna?”

Ren pauses and considers. “We need to scout ahead and get word on the buyer.”

Bear shrugs. “That’ll be tomorrow. We won’t be able to sleep.”

Ren sighs. “Those purple flowers are a sedative. We’ll be able to put her to sleep. Then we’ll scout ahead. After that we’ll make an informed decision.”

Bear nods. “Sounds good. How will we get her to drink it?”

Ren blinks. “She’s asleep right now just soak her in it and make her drink it.”

Bear pauses and then nods and starts gathering them. Ren makes a bath and tea and Bear carefully makes Mikoto drink it while she’s asleep. It’s a useful E-rank water jutsu and Ren memorizes it. After that Bear and Ren stash her and Ren is on the defensive while Bear scouts ahead.

Bear comes back exhausted. “A minor lord that she’s engaged to. She’s not a pure Uzimaki so no one cares. Uzoshi gets a trade agreement out of it.”

Ren consider before sighing. “How sad.”

Bear nods. “Exactly. Do you think we fully understand everything now?”

Ren nods again. “Four parts. One Uzoshi gets a trade deal making our ally stronger. The one that’s going on will remove Konoha from the equation and the like, two we become stronger allies and get Suna a weaker partnership with Uzoshi, three the Land of Waves dislike Samurai, and finally four we prove to be competent.”

Bear nods once more. “There’s only one problem that everyone overlooked.”

Ren nods. “That she’s more valuable as a shinobi then as a bride. That we could stand to gain more than this.”

Bear smiles slowly. “The only reason they came to this conclusion is because she’s hidden her skills all her life.”

Ren shakes his head. “Then why did she show me her skills?”

Bear is frowning now. “Let’s get her up and about and ask her.”

Mikoto has a mild headache from her drug induced rest and Bear and Ren pretend it’s one day ago. Ren acts while learning to make steam dragons and playing spotting games. The night before they arrive, Mikoto secretly shows Ren a shuriken and teaches him to throw it. Ren picks it up slowly with wide eyes before frowning. “Hey, Mikoto-san, why are you teaching me these things?”

Mikoto smiles a little and ruffles his hair. “You remind me of my younger brother.”

Bear meets with Ren that evening. “Any info.”

Ren nods. “Dead younger brother. I think I found the mission under the mission.”

Bear pauses before tilting his head to the side and staring at Ren. “Oh, I’m not the best at spotting those. Explains why Lizard sent you, Katsu.”

Ren nods. “Replace her. Tell her her options are run to the Land of Iron as Konoha will complete her mission but Uzoshi will suffer and she’ll cause diplomatic problems or she can join Anbu and we can fake it so that everything goes off without a hitch.”

Bear nods. “He’s a minor noble. You’ll observe him today and I’ll talk to people. Then we’ll ask her after revealing we’re with Konoha. I take it option one is let the Konoha team rescue her and option two is we find someone to take her place.”

Ren nods again and the next day follows the minor lord to a smaller village where he heads over to where a young farm girl is. “Mei?”

A young woman walks out and smiles. “My lord. I’ve been wondering where you were. Come inside I’ve got bread in the oven right now.”

Ren gets it all of a sudden. Maybe reading all of those romance books from the romance section was useful for more than understanding adult behavior. He frantically changes into his Anbu equipment before henging himself to be adult sized. As the minor lord finishes explaining and the girl just stares. Ren lands on a nearby fence post and crouches there. First appearances are important after all. “May I make a counter suggestion?”

They both jump. Then stare. The minor lord glances at where his horse is and then steps defensively in front of the girl. “Which is?”

Ren purrs out the words. “I will deal with the Uzoshi girl and I will teach the young mistress disguise. Marry her and worry about nothing else.”

The noble stares. “What’s in it for you?”

Ren rolls his shoulders. “Multiple things beyond your scope of imagination. For you though what does it matter.”

The girl swallows and takes a hold of the minor lords hand. “Can you? Can you really make it so we can get married?”

Ren purrs out the words. “Of course, Mei. In fact I fully plan to.”

The minor lord is frozen in indecision. Mei continues. “What do you want from us?”

Ren smirks and leans forward slightly letting the slightest bit of killing intent, just enough to feel dangerous, out. “I want many things. When I ask for them, you will reply. In return? You will be married. You will be happy. And you will have children that your mother will smile upon. Do you not want that?”

They talk about it for a little bit. Before agreeing. Bear’s shadow clone dismisses itself and Ren smiles. “Good. I will be back in two hours. Minor lord head home and wait for me.”

Ren rushes off and Mikoto is pressed up against a tree while Bear sighs. “Katsu, she found your headband.”

Ren freezes before sighing and falling back into a bored expression. “Oh, how troublesome.”

Mikoto snarls. “We’re in wind aren’t we.”

Ren tilts his head to the side. “Mikoto Uzumaki. You have two options.”

Ren waves forward Bear who moves and then pins her so she’s shoved into the ground and there’s a foot on her back and her hands are being held in a grip. Mikoto glares and Ren, well, Ren has always had good control over his killing intent, has already made the decision to kill her if things don’t go well. After the deal he’d made, she’s more valuable out of the way then not. Bear remains still and Mikoto freezes. Ren continues. “One you die.”

Bear makes eye contact but doesn’t move. Ren let’s the killing intent increase and Bear joins in. Ren continues. “Or two you can join us.”

Mikoto is shaking slightly. Ren wonders why people are so weak to killing intent. “What?”

Ren sighs and crouches down. “Mikoto. We have already dealt with your marriage. The only other option is to either die or join us. As it is.”

Ren picks up some of her hair and tugs it so eye contact is being made. Mikoto snarls. “As it is?”

Ren shrugs. “As it you’re more valuable gone then here.”

Mikoto just stops and stares. Ren stops the killing intent and Bear gets off her just on time. Ren is glad Bear is so skilled. “What?”

Ren shrugs and drops her hair as Mikoto props herself up. “We’ve dealt with the marriage. So it is what it is. You can either join us or fake your death.”

Mikoto is sitting up farther. “What?”

Ren sighs. “You hired us to get you out of your marriage. And now this here is a job offer.”

Bear is silent but still being helpful by nodding when Mikoto glances at him. “What’s the job?”

Ren smiles slowly, and as Mikoto is sitting up now, before grabbing her hands and lifting them up. “A chance to be able to prove to yourself that you’re a shinobi after all.”

Mikoto stares. “No one wants me as a shinobi. I’m more valuable as a diplomatic piece.”

Ren stands up and Bear steps in by helping her up and then continuing. “You are skilled. You are self taught. You are useful.”

Ren makes eye contact and tries to feel how she feels. How she thinks. What she feels. Then he steps forward, and his chakra feels oddly light as he smiles, and he says it simply. “You are needed.”

After that, Bear head back to Konoha while Ren finishes things here. Mainly by doing some intense make up training and getting a geisha in on it and dying her hair red. When Brash and Lively arrive, Me smiles and dismisses them. “Thank you but. Well. He’s not as bad as I thought he’d be.”

Lively and Brash of course check for genjutsu before shrugging and leaving. It definitely unsettles them. The minor lord is nervous of the ‘demon’ he made a pact with and the wedding goess of without a hitch. Mainly because of the really good alcohol provided and the fact that the bride had insisted on being very veiled and leaving as soon as possible with her new husband.

Mikoto was only fourteen. Blond hair, such as the girl had, was popular. The rest was just easing back into herself slowly. And the geisha. The geisha was very important to keeping the whole thing going.

Ren ran all day and night before making it back to Konoha in time with Bear. “Bear, how long until we have to report?”

Bear shrugs. “Not too long. Tomorrow definitely.”   
Mikoto shuffles and hunches in on herself. “What happens now?”

Ren changes into Rabbit as Bear does the same. “Now we go tell Lizard that you were recruited.”

Lizard stares at Mikoto, who’s a blank mask right now, before turning towards Bear and Ren. “What is this?”

Bear shrugs. “Rabbit found someone to take their place, got a Wind lord to agree to do what we want, and got them as an Anbu. I think they’re proud of themselves.”

Ren nods and Lizard just seems to stare. “Huh. Okay then. Welcome to Konoha. Chunin or Anbu?”

Ren considers before shifting his attention to Bear who shrugs. “Anbu. Chunin wouldn’t have enough social interaction.”

Lizard blinks once. “Wow. That is something I didn’t think I would ever hear. Welcome to Anbu. Let’s get you a mask.”

Lizard left with her and Bear rolls their shoulders. “Right. Come meet my team Rabbit.”

Rabbit nods and follows.

Bear takes to the roof tops and runs down some patrol path that Ren doesn’t know. There are two people hidden outside the walls. “Cat, Crow. This is Rabbit. We’ve returned from a mission recently.”

Ren takes a look at them. Memorizes their masks and follows Bear to where Dragon and Eagle are sparring right now. Bear lets Ren take a look before Ren races after to where Hare was very carefully making some type of poison gas. Crow is watching. Bear tracks down Frog who is sleeping in the room where people play cards. He’s in a snuggle pile with Tapir and Trout. Dog is drawing them and waves before beginning to sign.

Bear signs something back and Dog nods and flips the page on his drawing. They write down carefully. ‘Observe/learn/watch/listen/spot.’

Bear makes a hand sign and Ren copies it. Ren holds his hand out for the book. ‘How do I turn that into a question?’

There’s a moment of non movement and then Dog and Bear begin signing two different things. Wolf walks in and Ren waves before memorizing the two. Wolf sits down slowly before signing something slowly. Ren tilts his head to the side. Dog begins writing. ‘Wolf signed report/clarify/what’s going on/what. Bear was signing report observed and I was signing singular unit/me/myself observe clarify.’

Wolf tilts and then slowly makes the observed sign. Ren nods. He makes the singular unit observe and then taps his mask. Bear makes a sign. Ren nods and then does the same two signs and turns towards Wolf. Wolf shrugs and looks at Bear who makes another sign. Ren decides to go through the numbers then. He holds up one finger and Bear nods and leads him through the Anbu sign language.

Two hours later, Tabby and Panther have swapped out with Dog, while Pheonix is learning with them. Wolf signs at Ren. “Report Wolf choice report.”

Ren tilts his head to the side and then signs back. “Strong ally Wolf. Defend attack jutsu type ally sword ally.”

Ally and good were the same sign. Pheonix made a face and took Dog’s book, who had complained about his sketchbook becoming full of words, and scribbled down. “How do I say pretend to be beaten and then regroup?”

Ren tilts his head to the side and there is silence on all sides. Mikoto walks back in. Lizard glances around and then signs. “Follow singular unit.”

They follow him and Lizard pulls them into an empty training room and then speaks. “Everyone greet Kapu. Rabbit and Phoenix follow me.”

They follow while everyone greets. As the door closes Ren can hear Wolf patting someone on the back. Phoenix twists his body to Lizard. “So, what’s going on?”

Lizard sighs. “Rabbit recruited the package. Help him explain it to the Hokage in a way that works.”

Phoenix nods. “Rabbit report as if I was the Hokage.”

Rabbit nods and then glances at Lizard. Lizard pauses. “He has higher clearance then you. It’s fine. Just don’t gossip.”

Ren turns back. “After realizing the point was to secure Uzoshi positive opinion with us and further decrease the chance of them siding with Suna in the event of another war-”

Lizard was coughing and Phoenix has just stared. Lizard shot up right. “Rabbit. What the actual ever living f-”

The Phoenix was body transporting Ren to the Hokage and Lizard was following. Ren let Pheonix put him down and then bowed to the Hokage. “Hokage-sama.”

The Hokage put away mission reports, that were classified and disguised as an orange book with an amazing plot and a reputation of being for adults, and spoke. “Report.”

Ren nodded. “Mission Semi-successful. Package was replaced and recruited into Anbu.”   
The Hokage stared. Lizard remained still and professional and Phoenix kept his head bowed. “Further details. Explain how and why the package was recruited.”

Ren nods again. “After Bear and I came to the conclusion that the mission’s primary objective was to increase public opinion of Konoha in our ally and decrease it in Suna and upon realizing that the package had shinobi skills that Konoha does not, I took the opportunity of attempting to replace the package with the minor lord’s lover. Upon success I recruited Mikoto Uzimaki into Konoha Anbu.”

Phoenix nodded calmly. The Hokage’s chakra sparkled. “And how did you come to that conclusion.”

Ren breathed in. Breathed out. “Mikoto Uzimaki was reminded of her younger brother and didn’t bother hiding some of her skills but in fact taught some to me. The minor lord’s lover was of her body shape, height, and weight. I felt that it would be best served by achieving both Konoha teams missions and-”

The Hokage interrupted. “What was the other Konoha team’s mission?”

Ren nodded. “An escort mission to escort the package to a place of her choosing. I assumed a backup in case of failure.”

The Hokage nodded. “Any other relevant details.”

Ren nodded. “Yes, Wave’s public opinion of samurai has been lowered and the other Konoha team has sharply increased the public opinion of shinobi. Other then that the minor lord could be told to do Konoha’s will if approached carefully.”

The Hokage nods. “That will be all. Dismissed. You two are dismissed. Anbu Captain you are to stay here.”

Lizard grabs Ren and body flickers back into the waiting rooms. “Come I have another mission for you. Do not let Wolf know that it’s a mission. Dove needs to be convinced to stay in Anbu, stay alive, and stay as a shinobi. The order of importance is two, three, one. Do not let Wolf know that this is anything but you approaching out of worry. Dove’s team was killed on an infiltration and assination gone very wrong. She has yet to make a report. Do you understand?”   
Ren nods and Lizard nods and then Ren tracks down Wolf, who is being signed at by Panther and slowly repeating. Ren glances at Panther and memorizes the sign. “Wolf report status.”

Wolf looked at him and then signed back. “Active/fine/ready/uninjured me.”

Ren nods and then signs to Panther. “Wolf reassign/come with/follow me.”

Panther nods and Ren glances at Wolf who signs an affirmative and follows Ren outside of that room. “Me talk/sound/sonic affirmative/confirmed/yes.”

Ren replies out loud. “It’s fine. I merely have some questions.”

Wolf continues following him to the changing rooms. “As do I. What do you need?”

Ren shouldn’t know Dove’s name. “Genjutsu from the exams. She made it in I believe. Where is she and what’s her mask?”

Wolf shrugs and then pauses as Ren begins changing into normal attire before heading to the stall over and most likely changing as well. “Dove, and she went on a mission with her genin team the day after we were recruited.”

Lizard feels hard to focus on as he slides into the room and signed hurry before heading to a different place. Ren thinks through things. “Very well. I am worried about her. Help me track her down.”

Lizard walks out in civilian attire and Ren walks over to where Dove’s Anbu stuff should be. Wolf walks out. “Why are you worried?”

Ren opens the locker and carefully pulls out a not and her mask. He glances over the frantically scribbled tear and blood stained note. The blood smudges under his thumb. ‘I’m sorry. Thank you for this opportunity. Everything I used is here and clean.’

Wolf frowns slowly. “That’s not good.”

Ren hums. “Let’s go. Do you know the way?”

Wolf is nodding as Ren, who is still weary from the road, climbs onto his back. Wolf pauses. “Right okay.”

Then he takes off through a ventilation vent that Ren had fallen through that should really not be used as a secret exit.

**Author's Note:**

> Any suggestions, any errors you noticed, any comments would be loved and I can guarantee for us noobs at writing. Comments made (or made me at least) squeal like the pigs we are.  
> Kudos are also nice if you liked my fan fiction.


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